International associations and initiatives

Meeting the challenges of mobility and sustainable development means tackling them together to ensure the free movement of goods and services on interoperable, safe and green lines and to help develop the railway sector, with significant repercussions and impacts on the economic and environmental sectors.

It means working together to standardise processes, pooling best practices and facilitating the development of new solutions to adapt rail transport to the ever-changing political and economic situation.

To meet these goals, as National Infrastructure Manager we take an active role in meeting the national, international and European challenges as part of a network consisting of Infrastructure Managers, European institutions and trade associations.

RailNet Europe (RNE)

RNE is a non-profit organisation based in Vienna, established in January 2004 by infrastructure managers and rail capacity allocation bodies. It has a total of 34 standing members from 25 countries and 10 associate members (rail freight corridors).

Source: http://rne.eu/

RNE Mission

Facilitating international cooperation and helping its members meet the challenges of the ever-changing railway sector in Europe
Taking on the role of main Freight Corridor Service Provider to provide "expert selection and support services in the areas of method and process development, development tools and management"
Promoting international rail travel
Defining and developing internationally harmonised company processes, models and guidelines
Supporting its members in implementing European legislation

RFI Partecipation

Our involvement within RNE is achieved through representation:

in the Managing Board, the body that supervises the work of all RNE’s ad hoc and permanent groups, and
in various work groups established to define railway infrastructure management processes/procedures:

• Sales & Timetable: responsible for standardising the process of constructing the international rail timetable, coordinating capacity restrictions and allocation infrastructure capacity. Within this group, the “TTR” project is currently under way, with the aim of reviewing the international rail timetable planning process according to the changing needs of passenger and freight railway operators.

• Traffic Management: contributes to developing the operating processes for facilitating and strengthening cooperation between RNE members and the Rail Freight Corridors (RFCs) in terms of traffic management.

• Traffic Performance Management: defines the international processes for monitoring and improving rail travel performance.

• Legal Matters: brings together the legal expertise of the Infrastructure Manager members to evaluate European legislation and establish standardised transport conditions

• IT: responsible for establishing the functional requirements for developing international information systems and relevant interfaces for connection to the Infrastructure Managers’ national systems

RailNet Europe (RNE) and Forum Train Europe (FTE), the association to which RFI and some of the companies of FS Group belongs, jointly produced this video to promote the European programme “TTR for Smart Capacity Management”.

The TTR project supports the European Green Deal, the plan developed by the European Commission, by promoting the increase of railway transport services both nationally and internationally, providing benefits for Infrastructure Managers and Passenger and Freight RUs.

Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER)

CER, founded in 1988, is based in Brussels and is an independent body representing the majority of players in the railway sector, such as railway undertakings, Infrastructure Managers and their national associations.

Source: http://www.cer.be/

CER Mission

CER promotes dialogue between its members and the European Institutions representing their interests in order to obtain standardised solutions at European level which help towards decarbonisation and the creation of an efficient, sustainable railway network for transporting passengers and freight.

CER’s main objectives are:

representing the interests of the members of the EU political scene,
providing technical and legal input aimed at improving the business and legislative environment in which the European railway operators and Infrastructure Operators operate, and
promoting rail as a competitive and sustainable method of transport in the system in Europe.

RFI Partecipation

We work with other Infrastructure Managers as part of the “CER Infrastructure Working Group” to examine the activities of European Institutions and provide our input in defining industry positions allowing for an efficient railway infrastructure by supporting investment projects in proportion to the increase in traffic demand.

Platform of Rail Infrastructure Managers in Europe (PRIME)

The European Commission works with infrastructure managers through the PRIME platform which was set up in October 2013 and currently has as many as 27 members, such as: the European Commission, 22 infrastructure managers and four European associations.
With the entry into force of EU Directive 2016/2370, the commercial pillar of the fourth railway package, the European Commission made it mandatory for all Infrastructure Managers to participate in this cooperation platform, also known as "ENIM" (European Network of Infrastructure Managers) given its function as a European network of infrastructure managers

Source: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/multisite/primeinfrastructure/prime-news_en

PRIME Mission

PRIME meets periodically with the aim of:

improving cross-border cooperation between railway infrastructure managers,
supporting the implementation of European railway policy,
contributing to market monitoring activities, and
facilitating the exchange of best practices in order to develop a comparative analysis of performance between Infrastructure Managers.

RFI Partecipation

We cooperate actively within PRIME through the involvement of our CEO in strategic meetings and the participation of our experts in the different work groups:

In the “Implementing Actions Expert" group our Company acts as chairman, assisting the European Commission in implementing secondary acts of legislation.
In the “KPI’s and Benchmarking” group, we collaborate actively in defining key KPI's which help improve the performance of railway infrastructure managers and provide more accessible, high-quality services.
In the “Charge” group, we provide our specialist input in discussions on defining rail infrastructure pricing systems with the aim of making rail transportation competitive and ensuring efficient use of the European railway network.
In the “Digitalisation” group - recently restructured - we cooperate to accelerate the development of harmonised digital solutions at European level which help to increase the efficiency of international rail capacity allocation and cross- border traffic management processes by improving the quality of information in real time on train movement.
In the “Safety Culture” group, we participate by carefully analysing and sharing knowledge about safety systems, processes, tools and behaviour (monitoring of safety performance, hazard identification and risk assessment, investigation of accidents or incidents) in order to improve management.

Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer (UIC)

UIC is the world railway organisation established in 1922 with headquarters in Paris. Today, it has 196 members from five continents.

Source: www.uic.org

UIC Mission

Promoting rail transportation globally with the aim of optimising the response to current and future mobility and sustainable development challenges
Promoting interoperability
Developing and facilitating all forms of international cooperation between members by sharing best practices
Proposing new ways for improving technical and environmental rail transport performance, improving competitiveness and reducing costs

RFI Partecipation

Our involvement within the UIC is achieved through:

active presence in all working groups relating to the activities of the Infrastructure Managers;
for the year 2021, participation in 18 Projects in the "Rail System Forum, Passenger Forum and Environment, Energy and Sustainability Platform".